# What is the humeral articulation or shoulder-joint?

Gray’s Anatomy (1918) describes the humeral articulation or shoulder-joint as follows: The shoulder-joint is an enarthrodial or ball-and-socket joint.

## What it means

- The shoulder-joint is an enarthrodial or ball-and-socket joint. The bones entering into its formation are the hemispherical head of the humerus and the shallow glenoid cavity of the scapula, an arrangement which permits of very considerable movement, while the joint itself is protected against displacement by the tendons which surround it.
- The ligaments do not maintain the joint surfaces in apposition, because when they alone remain the humerus can be separated to a considerable extent from the glenoid cavity; their use, therefore, is to limit the amount of movement. The joint is protected above by an arch, formed by the coracoid process, the acromion, and the coracoacromial ligament.
- The articular cartilage on the head of the humerus is thicker at the center than at the circumference, the reverse being the case with the articular cartilage of the glenoid cavity. The ligaments of the shoulder are: The Articular Capsule. The Glenohumeral. The Coracohumeral. The Transverse Humeral. The Glenoidal Labrum. 70 The Articular Capsule ( capsula articularis; capsular ligament ) .
- —The articular capsule completely encircles the joint, being attached, above, to the circumference of the glenoid cavity beyond the glenoidal labrum; below, to the anatomical neck of the humerus, approaching nearer to the articular cartilage above than in the rest of its extent.
- It is thicker above and below than elsewhere, and is so remarkably loose and lax, that it has no action in keeping the bones in contact, but allows them to be separated from each other more than 2.5 cm., an evident provision for that extreme freedom of movement which is peculiar to this articulation.
- It is strengthened, above, by the Supraspinatus; below, by the long head of the Triceps brachii; behind, by the tendons of the Infraspinatus and Teres minor; and in front, by the tendon of the Subscapularis.

## Sources

- [Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body (1918)](https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/anatomy-of-the-human-body/6c-humeral-articulation-or-shoulder-joint/)

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